Everybody has secrets. Even the dead…

Join bestselling author, Barbara Taylor, in conversation with renowned author Kaylie Jones, at the La Jolla/Riford Library and dive into Barbara’s latest novel, Rain Breaks No Bones. Set in 1955, this page-turner explores a family’s legacy of loss and a sometimes mystical vision of a better tomorrow.

Registration & Books

Registration for this event is not required, as it is free and open to the public. However, seating is available on a first-come first-served basis. You may purchase a copy of Rain Breaks No Bones to be delivered to the event for signing.

About the Author and Book

Born and raised in Scranton, PA, Barbara J. Taylor sets her novels in the hometown she loves and fills them with miners, evangelists, vaudevillians, nuns, gangsters, prostitutes, widows, musicians, dreamers, and a seer or two. Publishers Weekly named her first book, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, a “Best Book of Summer, 2014,” and described her sequel, All Waiting Is Long, as “Suspenseful,” with “… startling plot twists,” and “… a breathtaking ending.” Her latest novel, Rain Breaks No Bones, is the final installment in her Scranton trilogy. Though the novels are connected, they each stand alone.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Taylor taught English in the Pocono Mountain School District where she encouraged her students to read great works and create their own. In the latter part of her teaching career, she earned her MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University.

Taylor can usually be found with a notebook in hand and a pencil behind her ear, her way of telling the muse, “I’m ready when you are.”

About the Moderator

Kaylie Jones is the daughter of American author James Jones, who wrote From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. Kaylie’s latest novel is The Anger Meridian. She is the author of the acclaimed memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me. Her novels include A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, released as a Merchant Ivory Film in 1998. She co-chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $12,000 yearly to an unpublished first novel.

Kaylie is also the publisher of Kaylie Jones Books, and imprint of Akashic Books. She is a full professor at SUNY Stony Brook in the Creative Writing and Literature Program, and also teaches at the Wilkes University Maslow Family Low-Residency MFAProgram in Creative Writing.

About the La Jolla/Riford Library

With a unique connection to San Diego’s biotech industry, the La Jolla-Riford Library is believed to be the first in the country to feature a public biotech laboratory. The Bio Lab is part of an innovation space at the library that also includes 3D printers and a 50-person capacity classroom.

La Jolla-Riford Library opened in 1989, thanks to a generous land donation from Ms. Florence Riford. At 25,000 square feet, the library features a cozy fireplace, enclosed outdoor reading patio, spacious community room with a piano and art gallery, and the History Room which houses a comprehensive collection of La Jolla historical documents and newspaper archives.